Related Content

Dezi Huges, 12, managed to escape. But Kathlynn Shepard was found dead about two weeks later.

Klunder had a dark past, with prior kidnappings and prison stays to show for it.

A high-security treatment center for high-risk sex offenders in Cherokee could have housed Klunder.

Jason Smith is the superintendent of the Civil Commitment unit for Sexual Offenders, also nicknamed CUSSO. Roughly 100 of the state's worst sex offenders live here. It's the red brick barrier between prison and the real world.

"It's a double fence with razor wire, so it is a secure environment," said Smith. "In order for someone to be civilly committed, the court has to order them here. Before that can be done they have to have already served their criminal sentences. The types of offenses, they vary. We have individuals who have committed sexual offenses against children, against adults -- so we have a full range of sexual offenses."

For each patient in the facility, Iowa taxpayers will spend more than $77,000 a year. Much of that is spent on treatment. Some men will spend up to five hours a day getting help.

The men at the facility are called patients, not prisoners, and it's so private, KCCI reporters weren't allowed to show where the patients live.

"It's definitely not top-of-the-line everything, but we try to create a dorm-like environment," said Smith. "So if you walk into one of our units, what we strive for is to make it look like a college dorm, couches and chairs, they have a common seating area, with one TV, where they sit in a group and watch TV."

Hand-picked offenders deemed the most likely to re-offend have been coming to the facility since 1999, and in that time, only 16 have been released into society.

Roughly 10 percent of all offenders who walk through the door actually walk back out.

"The individuals we have here have committed a large number of sexual offenses, which means they've impacted a lot of people, a lot of people's lives," said Smith.

Smith hesitated even doing an interview for fear it would re-traumatize victims. But he decided to sit down for his first TV interview in some seven years to shine a light on how they're helping offenders get better and how, in turn, they're keeping Iowa safe.

"Most of the people that we serve here have either been victims of abuse themselves, been exposed to some sort of violence, or victimization, so it really depends on the person," said Smith. "Many of the people that are here have significant mental health and psychiatric issues, which also contributed to their sexual offending."

In order to get out a patient must be evaluated by the courts. It's a difficult process which includes psychiatric evaluations and even a polygraph.

"We have quite a few of the original people," said Smith.

Most people end up staying forever. Seven have died before they could get out. Because here it's not a question of a cure, it's how likely they are to re-offend.

"So it's about management. How do they manage and not about a cure? How do they manage those thoughts and feelings and behaviors, social relationships, environments that set the occasion for their offending to occur? How do they manage that so further victimization doesn't occur? Because they will always have to be vigilant, so they won't engage in other victimizations," said Smith.

Smith said patients have had setbacks in their treatment and had to start over a step or two, but he said no one has been released and then re-offended.

Iowa law says the facility can't turn people away. There is enough room for 150 patients.